1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control system of a personal computer, and more particularly, to a display control system having a window interface for organizing program and directory icons.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Window-based interfaces are widely used in personal computers. An application program is usually displayed as a program icon in a window interface. Icon frames, like document folders for storing and managing various documents, are commonly used for organizing program icons and the program icons contained in one icon frame is defined as one directory.
A user can create various icon frames on a window interface to organize all the program icons. The icon frames can be displayed within or beyond a rectangular boundary of a window interface, and each icon frame can be opened and closed by using a mouse and a cursor displayed in the window interface. When an icon frame is closed, it will be displayed as a directory icon, and the closed icon frame can be re-opened by pointing the cursor to the directory icon and clicking the left button of the mouse twice. The program of a program icon can also be executed in the same manner. If a user wants to execute a program in a closed icon frame, the user has to locate the directory icon of the icon frame, open the icon frame, locate the program icon, and then execute the program.
Since icon frames and directory icons can be freely moved within or beyond a rectangular boundary of a window interface, or overlap with other icon frame, it is sometimes difficult to find an icon frame or a directory icon in a window interface. If one target icon frame or directory icon is overlapped by other icon frames, all the icon frames covered above the target icon frame or directory icon have to be removed first before the target icon frame or directory icon can be located. If the target icon frame or directory icon is located beyond the rectangular boundary of a window interface, the content of the window interface will have to be scrolled in order to locate the target icon frame or directory icon. Locating a hidden icon frame or a directory icon is sometimes a very time consuming job and is very inconvenient to a user.